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A Day Could Be Dedicated To John Glenn
By: Associated Press
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Every Feb. 20 starting in 2012 would be "John Glenn Friendship 7 Day" under a bill passed by the Ohio Senate.
The day would mark the 50th anniversary of Glenn's space flight orbiting the earth – the first for the United States. The bill cleared the Senate Tuesday and now goes to the House.
Bill sponsor Sen. Tom Sawyer says Glenn's flight led to an "era of epic heroism."
Glenn grew up in New Concord.
He served as a U.S. Marine Corps pilot in World War II and the Korean War before joining NASA and orbiting the earth three times in his spacecraft, the Friendship 7 – a flight featured in the 1983 film "The Right Stuff."
After resigning from the space program in 1964, Glenn served Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 1974 to 1999.